Youth Advocacy
08.10.2026
Weekly Review and Announcements
Welcome back to our community of advocates. A quick reminder to all our readers: the core purpose of this blog is not to chase or respond to the exhausting daily distractions this "Regime" deploys to overwhelm and confuse us. Instead, we are here to analyze the underlying trends, offering deep-dive insights that help you understand the mechanics of this regime on a much more profound level.
For the dedicated leaders and citizens working tirelessly on the front lines of fair elections, your courage does not go unnoticed. You can download a completely free musical collection—featuring multiple, high-energy protest anthems—directly via our dedicated Voting Advocates Portal.
Current Briefings & Core Trends
📊 Trend Index 01 | A Small Price to Pay
When this administration glibly claims that an enemy strike destroying major American cities like Los Angeles or San Diego is a "small price to pay," they expose a terrifying reality: to a billionaire regime, our lives, our communities, and our daily economic survival are completely expendable components of their corporate power structure.
⚖️ Trend Index 02 | Conservative Might over Human Rights
Justice Samuel Alito and the unchecked Roberts Supreme Court have abandoned constitutional fidelity to target fundamental human rights—from voting rights to marriage equality—shielding themselves from democratic criticism to construct an unchallengeable autocracy driven strictly by partisan victory.
🗳️ Trend Index 03 | Voting for Consequences
As Trump appointees intentionally break the Hatch Act to turn the raw power of executive agencies into a partisan campaign machine, this November’s midterm elections are no longer a mere policy debate, but our final democratic mechanism to impose legal consequences on a regime acting with absolute impunity.
🧠 Trend Index 04 | Clarifying Terms (Stupidity)
By applying Carlo Cipolla's economic laws of human stupidity to our current crisis, we see the true catastrophe of an administration where destructive, billionaire "bandits" driven by greed operate hand-in-hand with "stupid" actors who dismantle the critical regulatory safeguards protecting our health, safety, and digital future.
📉 Trend Index 05 | Trump Can—and Will—Get Worse
Trapped inside a self-serving echo chamber of unchecked sycophants, the president's compounding cognitive decline has decoupled his administration from objective reality, leaving a shell of a man who mistakes personal architectural fantasies and unverified corporate trade deals for established facts.
Visual Stories
We invite you to experience our latest creative resistance piece. Watch the official visual story for "Take It Back," a powerful musical anthem designed to shake off quiet compliance and challenge the rising tides of authoritarianism.
👉 Watch "Take It Back" Free on YouTube
🎵 Featured Visual Track | Take It Back (Official Visual Story)
A powerful anthem of youth advocacy and resistance against rising authoritarianism. "Take It Back" pairs an urgent message with an unforgettable rhythm, challenging us to stand firm, use our voices, and reclaim our future. This track is featured on the award-winning album by Dr. Jerry Goebel.
Connect, Stream, & Support:
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Articles and Commentary
Source | Primetimer
"This should outrage every American" - Maria Shriver reacts to Trump saying Iran bombing US cities "is a very small price to pay"
A Small Price to Pay
On October 5, at a Nebraska political rally, Trump said that bombing a U.S. city was a “small price to pay.” Here is his quote: "And again, remember, with the war, it's just artificial. It's a little bit high. It's a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe. They could take out a city. Let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego. This is a very small price to pay and it's gonna be over with very soon. It's essentially almost over with."
What else is a “small price to pay” for this president? Those service people who have died in his war, our gas prices, our grocery prices, basically, anything that doesn’t affect the Trump fortune is a small price to pay.
This president and the Republican regime that continually supports him sees all of our pain and suffering as a small price to pay for their largesse. As long as they remain in power, and can continue funneling trillions to his amigo billionaires, that’s all that matters. Apparently, it is all “artificial” to them (whatever that means).
Midterms will be our opportunity to remind this regime, “We are not a small price. We are the ultimate cost.” And they will pay it; beginning this November at midterms.
Source | The Atlantic
Zombie Originalism
Conservative Might over Human Rights
Make no mistake, this Supreme Court—especially Justice Alito—has no intention of making decisions that are indicative of the opinions of the citizens of the United States. Hidden in this article is the premise that Alito, especially, also really has no intention of even making decisions consistent with the Constitution. Alito—and to the extent that he can sway the other justices—has an audience of one: himself. And what Alito wants is absolutism: the omnipotent power to prevent a liberal court from ever returning, even if that means giving power to an authoritarian president.
Liberal, to Alito, encompasses civic rights, voting rights, minority rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and women’s rights. All of these human rights are secondary to conservative might.
Here is how the writer of this article, Jack Goldsmith, puts it: “It dovetails with a Trump-era New Right conception of law that is unshackled by restraint and focused solely on conservative victory.”
In an interview with CBS News (https://youtu.be/QQtqOLAUOmE?si=JEKl89iHiax6yHc7). Alito has expressed that “criticism of the Supreme Court can be damaging.”
I would suggest that what would be even more damaging than honest criticism is a Supreme Court that answers to no one, which is what the Roberts Supreme Court has become. Roberts has been systematically trying to create a court to whom all branches of government (and the fourth estate—the press) succumb.
Goldsmith, who is a Law Professor at Harvard Law School and was Assistant Attorney General under the George W. Bush administration, is far from a liberal critic of the Supreme Court, but he is a critic, especially of Alito, and I would suggest reading his full article to find out more about Goldsmith’s insights in light of the provenance of Samuel Alito.
Alito wants four things: White Christian Nationalism, unquestioned dogma, plenary executive power, and a canonized system that would never challenge conservative might. Having been the primary voice undermining Roe v. Wade, he is now turning his eyes on ending the rights of U.S. citizens to marry whom they choose (the Obergefell v. Hodges decision).
In her October 5th “Letters From An American,” Heather Cox Richardson reminds us of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), written under the guidance of the beloved Eleanor Roosevelt and announced in 1948. It was written to provide a common standard of fundamental rights for all human beings. As Cox Richardson says, “Those rights included freedom from slavery, torture, degrading punishment, arbitrary arrest, exile, and ‘arbitrary interference with…privacy, family, home or correspondence, [and] attacks upon…honor and reputation.’”
Alito and this Supreme Court are obviously declaring they have no legal reason to adhere to the decisions of the United Nations, and Trump is obviously doing all he can to undermine it; even if it means “interfering with privacy, family, and home.” Such basic human rights seem beneath Alito’s dignity, certainly beneath his true goal of Conservative might.
If we want to stop this dogmatic juggernaut, it’s clear we must 1) impeach this president, 2) dismantle the Republican regime, and 3) break apart the Roberts court. The midterm election is where we start. Let’s focus on turning out the vote so that our children can have a democracy focused on human rights rather than an autocracy focused solely on conservative might.
Source | The Atlantic
Using the Power of the Government to Win Elections
Voting for Consequences
Paul Rosenzweig is particularly well-suited to write this article. He was deputy assistant secretary for policy of the Department of Homeland Security under the George W. Bush administration and served as a senior counsel in the investigation of President Bill Clinton. So no one can really cite him as a Democratic hack with an ax to grind. Rosenzweig seeks to address the issue of the Hatch Act and begin asking if there should be any consequences for ignoring it. The Hatch Act was enacted in 1939 to: “limit certain government employees to ensure that these officials in their executive functions are above partisan political activity. Federal employees may not use their official authority to influence an election, though they can engage in political activity when they are off the clock, and restricted employees (which includes all national-security and law-enforcement personnel) may not “take an active part” in any political campaign.”
Rosenzweig points out that this law has been intentionally ignored by multiple Trump appointees who have campaigned without consequences for breaking the law for this administration. Pete Hegseth (DOD), Brendon Carr (FCC), Todd Blanche (AG), have all hit the road and/or used their role to support this regime and only the Supreme Court prevented Trump from using the U.S. Postal Service to his ends. Whether Trump uses the Department of Homeland Security to monitor voting locations and threaten to arrest individuals remains to be seen.
Another term for intentionally ignoring the law is intentionally breaking it. The midterms are a great threat to Trump and his regime. Complying with the law is obviously not on their agenda. Clearly, we can expect this behavior to worsen. This regime (including Trump and the Republicans) obviously believes they can act without impunity. Why? Because they have acted without consequences. Thus far, there have been no consequences for intentionally ignoring the law, largely because that would fall on the Republican Congress to pursue any recourse.
This election is not just about which party will hold the reins after the midterms, it is about whether consequences will be held for acting illegally in future elections.
Source | The New Republic (TNR)
Trump Personifies the Basic Laws of Human Stupidity | The New Republic
Clarifying Terms: Stupidity
This morning’s article by Ross Rosenfeld of The New Republic (TNR) gives us important designations on a term we must embrace. Clarifying terms is another way of putting a handle on a suitcase to make it easier to carry. It doesn’t lessen the weight or make the piece of luggage smaller; it just makes it easier for us to haul around. In a group context, clarifying terms can help us rally around solutions that are better targeted at solutions that will work.
The book is by Italian economist, Carlo Cipolla, who became an author and lecturer at Berkeley University, where he penned the book “The Basic Laws of Stupidity.”
Cipolla, writing after the Vietnam War, was committed to understanding how advanced societies could commit blatantly stupid acts. Rosenfeld points to the following events that make it imperative we reopen Cipolla’s book again: “Today, as we witness one of the dumbest wars in history unraveling in Iran, an inept health and human services secretary working to bring back measles and polio, a Republican Party wherein only 20 percent view the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol as a violent insurrection but 71 percent deny Joe Biden won the 2020 election, and an administration that refuses to properly regulate AI and crypto industries that threaten the economic well-being and safety of all…”
I want to quote straight from Rosenfeld now, because I could not interpret his summary of Cipolla better than he wrote it:
Cipolla divided people into four groups: the helpless, whose actions harm themselves but benefit others; the intelligent, whose actions benefit themselves and others; the bandits, who enrich themselves while harming others; and the stupid, whose actions harm others while producing no benefit to themselves. This latter group is Cipolla’s main concern. “No matter how high are one’s estimates of human stupidity,” he wrote, “one is repeatedly and recurrently startled by the fact that a) people whom one had once judged rational and intelligent turn out to be unashamedly stupid; b) day after day, with unceasing monotony, one is harassed in one’s activities by stupid individuals who appear suddenly and unexpectedly in the most inconvenient places and at the most improbable moments.”
Cipolla goes on to say that the real danger is when stupid people gain power. What occurs then? Again, let’s turn to Rosenfeld:
“In this scenario, the stupid will have at their disposal means of destruction created by the intelligent—armies, weapons systems, monetary levers, media influence—and will oversee industries often controlled or influenced by bandits, weakening the institutions designed to monitor them. Imagine, if you will, if an extraordinarily stupid man were to somehow become secretary of defense, jeopardizing both our soldiers and our position in the world while also promoting a testosterone-based culture that could damage our forces for years.”
The role of the intelligent, according to Cipolla, is to keep the stupid in check, which is possible in a democracy, but difficult because, as Cipolla says, “politicians often have to appeal to the stupid in order to maintain power, ensuring that stupid politicians will always make up a fraction of government officials.”
Cipolla presents five laws that validate his theories. Please refer to the article if you want to dive deeper into them. But the emphasis is that the intelligent repeatedly underestimate the stupid to their gross detriment. He then goes on to chart people based upon their consistent behavior (acknowledging that people can change, but asking us to look at the overall results of their actions and not just their words): Helpless, Intelligent, Bandits, and Stupid.
Rosenfeld does a good job charting out this regime based upon their behavior. What he says is extremely insightful and important for us to understand:
“If we were to do a current-day chart, you would find most of the Trump administration leadership in either the “bandit” or “stupid” quadrant—though their exact coordinates on the chart would undoubtedly be a matter of debate. Some might reasonably argue that Trump himself should be on the stupid side. I’d put him close to there, as many of the things he does are just plain stupid. But I contend that his utter stupidity cannot match his unadulterated greed, so I would put him in the “bandit” quadrant but right beside “stupid”—and as far away from “intelligent” as possible. Other top Republicans in that quadrant might include Mike Johnson, Marco Rubio, Scott Bessent, JD Vance, and Kash Patel, while those more worthy of the “stupid” quadrant are RFK Jr., Pete Hegseth, and Tommy Tuberville.”
The dangerous predicament we find ourselves in today—especially regarding AI—is best summarized by Rosenfeld who says, “It’s like we built a hydrogen bomb, then entrusted Gordon Gekko to make a profit off it and Barney Fife to monitor him.”
I want to thank Rosenfeld for this article; it is so important that we clarify terms so we can better improve our strategies. It will help us all be on the same page. Please open the link to Rosenfeld’s page and read this in more depth; I promise it will be worth your time. Share it with others and talk about the definitions that Cipolla created. Clarifying terms can help us improve strategies in order to defeat this regime.
Source | Letters From An American
October 1, 2026
Trump can—and will—get worse.
Surrounded by sycophants and unable to complete a sentence, the president still wields an immense amount of power.
In this commentary by historian/professor Heather Cox Richardson, we are allowed glimpses not only of how bad Trump’s cognitive decline has become, but also the extent to which he has surrounded himself with people who constantly tell him that his policies are working and that he is a popular—perhaps the most popular—president ever.
As to his cognitive unraveling, Cox Richardson cites this excerpt from Trump’s recent interview by senior political correspondent Eric Cortellessa and editor-in-chief Sam Jacobs of Time Magazine: “I have the highest of IQs. I have the highest. I’m fine, and I understand that stuff. You know, my uncle was at MIT for 41 years, and you know, I’m a—I believe in genetics, frankly, and I understand. I understand it much more than I think any president would, because I do have an ability on this. I have an ability on those things that were the new frontiers.”
Does that sound like a person you want anywhere near the nuclear codes?
But that not only reveals how undercooked Trump’s soft-boiled brain has become. It seems all that is left in the shell of this man’s cranium is revenge and self-service.
Again, Cox Richardson cites the Time interview: “The interview reveals a man unable to answer questions coherently, obsessed with his architectural projects, consumed by his own fantasy of himself, and angry at the media that he feels mistreats him. He does not appear to be a well man.”
The historian reveals that Trump is living in a fantasy world where he actually believes if he says something, it automatically becomes fact. She points to two projects that Trump touted as “done deals” that, in fact, are still in the approval process. One in Alaska with South Korea and one in Iowa with the State Legislature.
Feeding Trump’s illusory world are sycophants like Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick who praised his idol in front of the press; “…your 232 tariffs, the steel tariffs at work,” and, “I think this deal is done. This deal is done. They’ve already worked it out. That’s why we’re all together with the president. The president doesn’t bring people together unless it’s a done deal. You guys know that already.”
But no evidence of land being purchased for a factory can be found. It’s all in the head of Trump and his sycophants.
Trump can—and will—get worse.
One has to wonder what else in his mind does he believe exists because he uttered the magic word?
